Collected Stories

Menhir

In which a small tribe of gorillas discovers the disturbing truth of their new captors.

...

Dead Water rapped her thick paws against the wood. Hollow. She broke the trunk open and called for Boom Stick. Boom Stick took a sharp rock in her hand and scraped it down the bark. They began picking up the roundstones they had brought with them, piling them high inside the hollow tree. When they were done they called for Wide Silver, who ambled over to inspect their work. Wide Silver was the largest and oldest silverback. The king of a three-strong kingdom. He inspected the tree, the roundstones. He signed in ASL that it was good. They moved onto the next tree.

This continued for an hour or so until a large ring of hollow trees had been filled with the roundstones. All the time Wide Silver looked to the sky, resting a tired paw on a branch. The clouds grew dark and angry. A thunderclap erupted above and Boom Stick screamed in panic, clasping a rusted dog tag around her wrist, thumbing the dried blood.

Dead Water held her tight and signed 'No Man. No hunter man. You safe me.'

Boom Stick's breathing slowed. She pressed close to Dead Water. Then the quickday came, lighting up the sky only for an instant, and Boom Stick started panicking again. Wide Silver stabbed the branch in the mud, beating his chest and circling Boom Stick and Dead Water. He growled, his dark chest billowing. They knew what was coming.

The roundstones had worked, suddenly little grids of blue light touched the trees, sweeping the area, reading the patterns. Dead Water stomped at one of the grids but it leapt through her foot. She kicked it and retreated. The clouds above grew orange, then green, then white. The grids locked on the hollow trees and the roundstones. Wide Silver stood proudly in front of the other two gorillas. He brandished the branch. He turned to them and signed 'Tall grey hunter man. Here. We kill'.

A spear of light erupted overhead, shearing through a tree and spitting jagged burning splinters in every direction. The stump smouldered as the three gorillas ran and rolled away. The blue grids coalesced into a single matrix in the middle of the hollow trees, glowing. Wide Silver looked up. The sky triangle lay there in the angry clouds, unfalling. Wide Silver didn't know how, but he felt something was looking back down, searching for him.

The gorillas made their way downhill, leaping and fighting their way over and through the bracken. Wide Silver turned to Dead Water when they reached the bottom. Boom Stick was missing. He heard her scream from atop the hill, saw the silvery triangle through the treetops. He signed 'stay' to Dead Water and made his way back uphill alone.

The blue grids had become a beacon now. It stretched from deep inside the sky triangle, spreading itself across the ground between the hollow trees and the roundstones. Wide Silver could see Boom Stick just out of reach of the grid, shaking, petrified. The quickday came again and flashed brighter than ever. One flash bent and hit the sky triangle. It didn't move.

The storm and the rain couldn't be heard. It was as if a bubble had grown between the shape and the gorillas. Wide Silver ran and shook Boom Stick. Her eyes were black, dilated, afraid. She was shaking.

She had seen something.

Wide Silver left her and looked around. He turned back to Boom Stick and a tall grey man was there, looming over her, bulbous black eyes staring down. It flicked its neck to face Wide Silver and he froze in place. It squinted and his branch flew back and shattered against a tree. Wide Silver fell to the mud, petrified. His eyes turned to the beam of light coming down from the sky triangle. It seemed to want him. Despite overwhelming and incomprehensible fear, he felt compelled to enter it.

But then the grey man screamed, losing concentration, flailing under the weight of a black mass against it.

Dead Water beat her huge paws against the skull of the grey man, continuing even when there was little skull left to hit. Another grey man appeared in the light and threw her with its eyes. Her body crumpled against a tree. The new grey hunter moved toward the first, lifting it and depositing its mangled body in the long light. Then it turned its attentions to Wide Silver.

Wide Silver reached behind his back for a roundstone or some fragment of bark. Nothing. The tall grey hunter got closer, reaching toward his face. Wide Silver bit into its leg, drawing blood. It tasted like poison, and the kicking and screaming of the grey hunter almost made him let go. He kept biting, the grey hunter's thin arms hitting him repeatedly, exerting a surprising amount of force. He could feel it focusing on him with its black eyes, trying to subdue him. The creature tried desperately to press its mind into his, to occupy the gorilla's thoughts.

He finally found a stone with one hand, bringing it up to the elbow of the grey hunter, shattering it. Dead Water charged from behind and dug a splinter of wood into the hunter's neck. It pushed through to the front, severing its spine. It collapsed. Wide Silver pushed the thin grey body aside and stood up, panting.

Dead Water and Wide Silver returned to Boom Stick. They helped her to her feet and watched the long light falter. It wasn't over. A third grey man appeared in the centre of the light. Wide Silver roared hoarsely and beat his chest, held up by Dead Water. He brandished a roundstone and threatened to throw it. This final grey hunter cowered. It looked to the three gorillas with fear and wonder in its eyes. It had underestimated them. It started moving its friend's body with its mind, before turning to face Wide Silver.

For the first time the grey hunter showed hesitation. It thought about something. The three gorillas heard it together in their heads, clearer than any spoken word or sign or idea, clearer than the sky and the lightning. The words echoed and inhabited the entire universe.

From a thousand invisible mouths the final hunter whispered.

'Me, you, same. Me tomorrow gorilla'.

Its tiny lipless mouth did not move, but the words drowned out all else. For a few moments the gorillas stayed perfectly still, fixated and hypnotised by the words, processing them.

The grey man turned away and finished pulling its friend into the light before finally walking into it. After a short while the long light flickered and went away. Thunder could be heard again. The silver sky shape slowly lifted back into the clouds. It turned and shot into the distance.

Wide Silver, Dead Water, and Boom Stick tended to their wounds on the forest floor. They had defeated the three hunter men too easily, and together remembered the humans they had fought harder against some weeks before, when the first of the sky triangles came. Boom Stick held her dog tag for comfort again, thinking of the dead humans nearby. Wide Silver thought of the eyes of the grey hunter men, how familiar they seemed, like family. He wanted to express this to the others, but couldn't find the words.